


Eye Contact

by ozuttly



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: M/M, gorgons, not really an au this time just a canon divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-02-28 22:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18765676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozuttly/pseuds/ozuttly
Summary: Hiiro notices that Kiriya never takes off his sunglasses, and he gets a bit curious. He isn't expecting the actual reason why.





	1. Chapter 1

Kiriya always wears his sunglasses inside. 

It’s something Hiiro notices, but never brings up. It irks him in a way that he can’t quite describe, sometimes. He chalks it up to the lack of professionalism and the way that it reflects back on the hospital, but Kiriya isn’t actually breaking any rules, so he doesn’t have any reason to say anything. Instead he just finds himself noting it, the way that lately he notes many things that Kiriya does, compartmentalizing them away in a small part of his brain that he realizes is dedicated to the coroner. 

He should find that realization more worrying than he does. Instead he ignores it, as is his specialty when it comes to things he doesn’t like or understand. 

He doesn’t think anyone else actually notices until the day that Nico brings it up while she’s visiting, whirling around on a wheely chair through the CR break room. 

“Man, how do you even see anything when you’re wearing those sunglasses all the time?” She asks, tilting her head to the side as she whizzes past him. Taiga looks up from the conversation he’s having with Haima – something about upgrading the CR’s equipment and selling him the old stuff for his clinic – and tells her to knock it off before she breaks something. 

She sticks her tongue out at him as she does a neat circle, exercising a level of control and precision that Hiiro didn’t think was possible on an office chair. 

Kiriya snorts through his nose, an amused sound, but he adjusts his glasses with a motion that is just too tight and rigid to be anything but… nervous, maybe? Hiiro doesn’t think he can recall seeing Kiriya nervous before. He considers it as he brings his fork to his mouth, the taste of his cake more an afterthought now. 

“I’m sensitive to light,” he says as an explanation, and Nico hums, her curiosity all but forgotten as she spins circles around Taiga threateningly. Hiiro, however, is interested now, and before he can stop himself he finds himself speaking. 

“They’re prescription, then?” He asks, and Kiriya turns to him in surprise, as though he hadn’t thought that he had been paying attention. The tips of Hiiro’s ears turn pink as he turns his eyes back to his cake, trying to appear casually disinterested. “I mean, I didn’t realize you had vision problems when you undertook the surgery to become a kamen rider,” he adds, as though it would have been relevent. Kiriya is still eyeing him curiously, like he’s not quite sure his angle is, but then he shrugs his shoulders. 

“Something like that, yeah,” he says, as though that isn’t cryptic as hell. Hiiro is trying too hard not to be embarrassed to push the questioning, though, and it’s at that moment that Emu comes in the door anyways, just as Nico is making another lap around the room with her chair, and the two collide rather spectacularly. Taiga groans as he runs to help her up, lecturing her about how he knew that was going to happen, at the same time that Kiriya runs to help Emu. 

Hiiro clenches his fist and goes to stand up, but he isn’t quite sure who he should be going to, and he ends up awkwardly sitting down again. Kiriya already has Emu up on his feet while Taiga checks Nico over for cuts and bruises, and Hiiro feels like he would just be in the way if he went over anyways.

From the side, he can just barely catch sight of Kiriya’s eyes unobstructed by the lenses of his glasses. They’re disarmingly beautiful. 

*** 

A week later, Hiiro’s still thinking about the sunglasses thing. 

He shouldn’t be, he knows. It’s none of his business, and light sensitivity isn’t even a necessarily rare problem to have. But Kiriya never takes off his glasses, no matter how dark it gets, and really, there should be a limit. 

It’s a puzzle that Hiiro finds himself committed to, even while his logical mind says that he should leave it alone. He observes Kiriya even more intently that he had been before, and realizes that he’s never seen him without the glasses, ever. It’s a strange thing to notice; he never takes them off, even to clean them, and Hiiro can’t help but find it strange. 

He even sleeps with them on, Hiiro realizes when he comes into the CR one day to see him napping on the couch, glasses still on his face. 

That is just a touch ridiculous, though; they’re going to get broken if he does that, and clearly they’re important to him with how often he wears them, so Hiiro reaches over and plucks them off his face, putting them on the coffee table. 

Kiriya stirs the second that the glasses are gone, his eyelashes fluttering as his eyelids flicker open, and Hiiro’s breath catches in his throat as he meets his sleepy gaze. 

His eyes really are pretty, if strangely unnatural. They’re a beautiful shade of golden brown that Hiiro doesn’t have the words to describe, but what’s strange is that his pupils aren’t quite as round as they should be, more narrow and slitted like a cat or a reptile’s. Hiiro wonders if it’s a symptom of whatever eye problem he has, though he’s never heard of something like it before. 

Kiriya stares at him for a few seconds straight, his eyes hazy with sleep, and Hiiro stares back, smitten. It’s only when Kiriya’s eyes widen in recognition and terror, and he leaps to his feet that Hiiro breaks his gaze, stumbling backwards. 

“Shit, shit, shit, glasses,” Kiriya growls, his voice low and panicked, as he covers his eyes with one hand, and Hiiro quickly grabs them off the table, shoving them into his hand. 

“You were sleeping with them on, I thought they’d get broken-- I’m sorry,” Hiiro stumbles through his words, having never expected that kind of reaction, and Kiriya’s hand falls from his face in shock. 

“Kagami?” He asks, the glasses half-raised to his face. He shies back as Hiiro looks back at him, and then he swears again, quickly fixing the glasses in their rightful place on his nose. “Holy shit, Kagami, you’re alive? Are you ok?” 

Hiiro blinks dumbly as Kiriya reaches out for him, touching his face in a mix of shock and reverence. He simply lets him for a brief second, trying to process everything that has happened in the past minute, before he steps away, shaking his head.

“Yes? I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? Kujou, are you alright?” He asks, a little irritated at having no clue what’s going on, before Kiriya lets out a heavy sigh, as though all the air leaves him at once. He slumps then, in relief, falling back down to the sofa, and Hiiro finds himself glaring at him. “Is there something going on?” 

Kiriya chews the inside of his lip, and then looks up at Hiiro with feigned ignorance. 

“What? No. Nothing. I was just spooked, had a weird dream,” he says quickly, and Hiiro narrows hie eyes at him. 

“Don’t lie to me, please,” he says tersely, because even though they may not be friends (despite his best wishes) he had hoped that Kiriya had more respect for him as a colleague than to lie to his face. 

Kiriya stares at him, looking surprised that Hiiro would actually call him out, before he shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just… It’s, uh, a bugster thing, ok?” He says, as though pleading for Hiiro to drop it. 

Hiiro considers it, for about two seconds. 

“If you’re experiencing adverse symptoms of the bugster virus you need to tell somebody,” he says tersely, and Kiriya groans. 

“Look, it’s fine, I talked to Emu about it,” he says, and Hiiro narrows his eyes at him. He’s a little… annoyed, for some reason, but of course Kiriya’s first reaction to any situation would be to talk to Emu about it, they’re best friends and--

Hiiro stops the word before it even creeps into his brain. He refuses to think about it. 

“Perhaps I can offer a second opinion,” he says, and it comes out colder than he means it to. Kiriya looks up at him, jaw set, a challenge sparking in his eyes behind the glasses. 

“Is that an order from the director’s son, Kagami?” He asks, the challenge clear in his voice, and for once Hiiro is quick to back down. He’s overstepped his bounds, he can realize that, and he doesn’t actually want to damage the friendly work relationship that he has with the other man. 

“No,” he says immediately, turning his head away, and Kiriya blinks, seeming genuinely surprised. He makes a strange noise in the back of his throat that Hiiro can’t quite quantify, and Hiiro licks his lips nervously. “It was just a suggestion, as a...” his mouth feels dry, and he swallows. “...a friend, is all.”

Kiriya’s surprise grows even more at that, and Hiiro quickly turns around, heading back over to the table where he takes his cake. He grabs a medical magazine that he hadn’t even thought about reading and quickly buries his nose in it, while Kiriya watches him for a few seconds, before he quickly departs. 

He’s probably going to go find Emu. 

Hiiro tries not to be disappointed by the thought. 

*** 

Kiriya comes back to him a few days later, cornering him when they’re alone in the CR. He locks the door, takes a deep breath and then takes off his glasses. 

Hiiro looks up from the cream puff he’s eating at stares at him for a second, one eyebrow rising. His eyes are as beautiful as ever, though the pupils are definitely slitted in this light. It should be off putting, to see such a decidedly inhuman feature, but instead it’s incredibly enticing, and Hiiro finds that he has trouble swallowing the bit of cream puff in his mouth. 

“Kagami?” Kiriya asks, and his voice is small and hopeful, with a hint of dread building up behind it. Hiiro doesn’t understand why, but it does shock him out of his staring. 

“Yes?” He asks, and Kiriya slumps in relief. 

“God, ok,” he mutters under his breath, and Hiiro finds his mouth twisting in annoyance, because he has absolutely no idea what is going on. Kiriya mutters a few more things to himself, massaging his temples a few times before he turns back to Hiiro, whose patience is starting to grow a little thin. “Ok. Ok, ok.” 

“Is this about that ‘bugster thing’?” Hiiro asks, because he doesn’t see himself getting anything out of Kiriya any time soon otherwise, and Kiriya jumps a little as though he had forgotten about his presence. He turns to look at him, their eyes locking, before Kiriya turns away first. 

“Yeah,” he says, and he goes quiet for a moment, before he turns back to Hiiro, chewing on his lower lip. “Yeah, it is. You know how all the other bugsters, they have… monster forms, right?” He says, and Hiiro blinks, because he doesn’t know what that has to do with anything. Neither Dan Kuroto, Poppy Pipopapo, Pallad nor Kiriya had ever shown any indication to have that, and he figured that it was just something that their strain of the virus didn’t entail. Except that had just been his assumption. 

“Yes…?” He begins, unsure, and Kiriya hesitates for a second, before his form starts to shift. It only takes a second, a flashing of pixels before the Kiriya standing in front of him is very different from the Kiriya that Hiiro knows. He’s still recognizable as the same person, of course. His clothes are the same, but where before his hair had been short and unassuming, now there are actual live snakes sprouting from his scalp. They’re still short, nothing like the long and curling mess that Hiiro has seen on statues of the Medusa, but it’s still bizarre to see. There’s a smattering of scales across his face too, around his eyes and his cheeks, under his jaw. Hiiro chances a glance down to his fingers to see them tipped with claws, and he finds himself swallowing again as he looks up to meet Kiriya’s eyes. 

“Oh,” he says intelligently, and Kiriya takes in a deep breath before his form shifts back to what it was before. He’s clearly more comfortable this, way, even though his eyes star inhuman. Hiiro stares for a few seconds longer than is strictly polite, before he nods his head. “Thank you for showing me.”

Kiriya raises his eyebrows as he walks over, slumping down into the chair across from Hiiro. 

“That’s all? No ‘you should have said something this important sooner’ or ‘this is an important symptom to note down in your chart’?” He asks, curious, and Hiiro finds himself frowning despite himself. 

“Well, those things are both true,” he says, and Kiriya snorts, though he sounds more amused than upset the way he had earlier, so Hiiro doesn’t push him about it. “But it’s obviously something you’re not comfortable with others knowing about, so...” He trails off, and Kiriya nods his head. 

“Yeah. It’s… It’s been an adjustment,” he agrees, and Hiiro nods his head slowly. He still doesn’t entirely understand everything that’s going on, but--

A thought comes to him, and he drops his fork. 

“The reason you wear the sunglasses, then--” he starts, and Kiriya turns to him, his face grim. 

“Yeah. Everyone I lock eyes with turns to stone,” he says, completely serious. 

It makes Hiiro wonder, then, how he is looking him in the eyes at that moment, and yet is completely fine. He thinks Kiriya is probably wondering it too, but there’s a more pressing matter at hand. 

“Did you…?” He asks, and Kiriya quickly shakes his head. 

“No, it was. It was a dog, that’s how I found out. Dan Masamune showed me when he brought me back. He told me about the sunglasses thing, too, and I’ve been wearing them ever since, until you...” 

He trails off, and Hiiro suddenly feels bad for taking his glasses the way that he had. 

“I was only worried about you breaking them, I thought they were prescription,” he says, a little defensively, and Kiriya sighs. 

“No, it’s fine, I get it. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep out here to begin with, but...” He trails off, biting his lower lip for a second. “Why you? Everything else… I mean, there’s been things like birds and bugs and stuff every now and then, and I just… I know that it would happen to people too, but for some reason for you it doesn’t.” 

He eyes Hiiro curiously, and Hiiro locks eyes with him. He can tell that it still makes him nervous, by the way that he quickly averts his gaze, but soon his eyes travel back, as though eye contact is something that he’s missed over the entire year that he’s been a bugster. It probably is. 

“I don’t know,” Hiiro says truthfully, and Kiriya exhales slowly. 

“Right. Right, you wouldn’t, I just--” He begins, and before Hiiro can stop himself he reaches out and grabs him by the hand. 

“It’s ok. I mean, we can try and figure it out together,” he blurts out, and then the tips of his ears turn pink again. He realizes that what he suggested sounded very presumptuous, and he quickly turns away so he doesn’t have to see the judging expression on Kiriya’s face.

“Right,” Kiriya says after a second of silence, and when Hiiro looks up at him he sees that there’s a hint of colour on his face as well.


	2. Chapter 2

It turns out that finding anything out is harder than Hiiro had anticipated. 

Kiriya had told Emu, because of course he had, and the two of them had talked to Pallad for some advice, but it had been entirely unhelpful. 

“’You just have to not do it’, he said,” Kiriya grumbles as he reiterates the conversation to Hiiro, who is poring over all the limited resources that they have on bugsters and the evolution of the bugster virus. He’s contributed to the writing of most of them, so it isn’t exactly helpful, but it’s something to do, and he does genuinely want to try and help Kiriya. “As though it’s a thing I’m doing on purpose, and not something that just happens.” 

He sounds frustrated, and Hiiro chews absently on the end of his pen. 

“Maybe you’re doing it subconsciously?” he suggests, and Kiriya gives him a very unimpressed look. “Ok, that was obvious, sorry.” 

Kiriya sighs and flops down onto the couch, his head resting in Hiiro’s lap. He’s been more tactile over the past few days, now that Hiiro knows his secret, and Hiiro can’t lie and say that he’s unaffected by it. 

“I know I’m doing it subconsciously, but knowing doesn’t actually help, you know?” He says as Hiiro moves his book so that he can get more comfortable. He’s pretty sure that his face is bright red, but he tries not to read too much into it; Kiriya is pretty touchy feely with everyone – Hiiro is sure he’s seen him throw an arm around Kuroto on one occasion – so this isn’t actually special. That doesn’t stop his stupid brain from appreciating it, though. 

“Maybe you just need to change your subconscious thinking,” Hiiro says, and when Kiriya gives him a blank look he shrugs his shoulders. “Psychology isn’t my area of expertise, so I can’t really make many suggestions. I would say that you should speak to an actual psychologist, but...” 

Kiriya sighs. 

“I’m not talking to somebody outside of the CR about bugster stuff,” he says firmly, and Hiiro nods his head. 

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” he agrees, and Kiriya settles once more, closing his eyes. 

“I still don’t know why it doesn’t affect you. I even tried it on a cockroach that ended up in my apartment last night, so it still works. You’re just immune.”

Hiiro can’t help but wrinkle his nose in distaste. 

“You need to clean your apartment,” he says, and Kiriya makes a noise of disagreement. 

“Hey, my place is fine. You can come over and do an inspection if you want,” he says teasingly, and Hiiro freezes in place. Kiriya opens his eyes and looks up at him through his glasses, then seems to realize what it is he said, and he coughs awkwardly. “Sorry, that wasn’t really, uh, appropriate.” 

“It’s fine,” Hiiro says a little too quickly. Kiriya raises an eyebrow at him, and Hiiro swallows. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind visiting sometime, if you were… offering…” He trails off as Kiriya stares up at him, and he pointedly avoids his gaze. Even through the buffer of the sunglasses his eyes are incredibly distracting. 

Hiiro may not be the most adept at recognizing emotions, his own or others, but even he isn’t blind enough to not realize that he has a crush.

Luckily, Emu comes in at that moment, though he pauses in the doorway as he looks between Kiriya’s head in Hiiro’s lap and the flush on Hiiro’s cheeks. His eyebrows rise ever so slightly before he walks in as though he hadn’t seen anything at all. At the sight of him, Kiriya sits up, and Hiiro misses the warmth of his presence immediately. 

“Emu, what’s up?” He asks, and Emu turns to him with a little smile. 

“Nothing, I just forgot something,” he says as he ruffles around in his locker. He pauses after a second, turning back to Hiiro and Kiriya. “I hope I didn’t interrupt you.” 

‘You did’, Hiiro wants to say, but he doesn’t. Kiriya waves a hand dismissively, as though nothing of import had happened, and it makes Hiiro’s mouth twist. 

“Nah, we were just discussing the whole…” he makes a gesture towards his sunglasses, and Emu’s eyebrows shoot up again. 

“You told Hiiro-san?” He asked, curious and surprised, and Hiiro shrugs his shoulders. 

“I found out by accident,” he said, and Kiriya nods his head. 

“It turns out it doesn’t work on him,” he says, and Emu blinks before that news settles in, and then he looks excited. 

“Really? Does that mean you’re fixed?” He asks, and Kiriya rubs the back of his neck, not wanting to deflate him but not going to lie either. 

“Nah. Just Hiiro,” he says, and Hiiro startles a bit at the use of his first name. He tries to hide it, though, because Emu and Poppy both use his first name and he’s never had an issue with either of them using it. The sudden familiarity from Kiriya is disarming, though, and it makes Hiiro’s chest squeeze a little bit. 

Emu, on the other hand, looks perplexed. 

“But why…?” He begins, and Hiiro just sighs as he gestures to the books surrounding them. 

“We’re trying to figure it out,” he says. Emu looks a little smug, though, in a way that Hiiro doesn’t usually see on him. He wonders why, before Emu speaks again. 

“Here I thought you two were just canoodling,” he says slyly, and Hiiro is sure he’s gawking at him just as Kiriya groans and tosses a (light, soft cover) book at him. 

“Go away,” he grumbles, and Emu laughs as he takes what he needs from his locker and scurries out of the room. He seems to be in a good mood, though, even though Hiiro is too embarrassed to really think about it. 

“I wasn’t-- We’re not,” he stammers, because he doesn’t want Kiriya to actually think that he had impure intentions about this whole thing. Kiriya glances up at him for a moment, studying his face before he sighs. 

“Relax, Emu’s just teasing. He thinks I have a crush on you,” he says nonchalantly, and Hiiro just about swallows his own tongue. 

“/Why/?” He asks incredulously, eyes wide and cheeks pink. Kiriya looks a little surprised by his reaction, but not too surprised. He just rubs the back of his neck again, making sure to put a little bit of distance between the two of them on the couch. 

“I don’t know, he’s Emu,” he says as though that’s any kind of explanation at all. Hiiro awkwardly clears his throat and looks away so that he isn’t just staring in disbelief at Kiriya’s face anymore. 

“Well, it’s preposterous,” he insists, and Kiriya just rolls his eyes as he rests his chin on his hands. 

“I don’t know, I don’t think it’s too impossible. You’re a popular guy, Hiiro,” he points out, and Hiiro feels like his face is about to combust. 

“W-well, I don’t know-- That doesn’t really have anything to do with anything,” he says, and Kiriya hums in a sound that is neither a confirmation nor a denial. Hiiro chances a look at him again. 

“I-it is preposterous, right?” he asks in a shy, quiet voice so unlike his own that he hardly recognizes it. Kiriya looks a little surprised, before he lets out a huff of air that sounds a little bit like regret. 

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m not gonna do anything to you or anything, I know you’re straight,” he says, and Hiiro drops the book that he’s holding. 

“I’m-- Erm. I never said…” he stammers, and Kiriya blinks back at him. Hiiro wonders if he should really correct him, or how he could correct him, before he decides to be impulsive for once in his life. He leans over and kisses Kiriya chastely on the cheek before quickly pulling away and staring very intently at the wall. 

Kiriya goes very still beside him, and Hiiro fidgets very intensely in his lap. 

“Oh,” is all that Kiriya says, and then he grabs Hiiro and pulls him into a proper kiss. It’s really not the best place, considering that they’re in the CR and anyone could walk in, but Hiiro is too startled to really do anything about it. Which is silly, because he had been the one to initiate things to begin with. But before long he finds himself melting against Kiriya, and the other man is tugging him in closer before they hear a disappointed groan from the door of the CR. 

“Man, really?” Pallad whines, and Hiiro and Kiriya immediately pull away. “I owe Emu 1000 yen now.” 

Hiiro doesn’t really have time to think about that because Kiriya is glaring at the other bugster and making shooing motions with his hand. Pallad, either because he doesn’t understand or because it’s his god-given purpose to be the most annoying and meddling creature on the planet, simply walks in and plops down on the couch right between the two of them. 

“Emu told me you finally figured out how to control your powers,” he says, tossing his arms around the back of the couch cushions while Kiriya glares a hole into his head. 

“Not quite,” he grunts through gritted teeth, and Hiiro clears his throat. 

“We don’t know why they’re behaving… erratically,” he clarifies, and Pallad rolls his eyes as though the two of them are being incredibly obtuse. 

“Well obviously it’s because he likes you,” he says, and even though it’s already something he’s confirmed Hiiro still chokes on his own spit a little bit. 

“Why would that change anything?” Kiriya asks, somewhere between annoyed and genuinely curious, and Pallad just crosses his legs and gets comfortable. Somehow Hiiro has a feeling that they’re not going to get to continue their makeout session any time soon. 

“Even if you can’t control them consciously, your powers are still a part of you, so they wouldn’t do anything you really didn’t want them to,” Pallad explains. “If you really care about someone of course you’re not going to want to kill them. Your subconscious picked up on that, so it deactivated your powers.” 

It makes sense, as much as Hiiro hates to admit it. Of course Pallad would have had the answer to the question the whole time. Kiriya mutters something unpleasant under his breath, and Pallad suddenly sits up and points an accusing finger at him. 

“Oh, but just because you know that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to look at Emu. I don’t actually trust your subconscious that much,” He adds in a dangerously serious tone of voice, before he smiles again and gets to his feet. “Also, if I leave you alone can you pretend not to be dating for two more weeks? I really don’t want to lose.” 

Kiriya promptly flips him the bird as he slides back in closer to Hiiro, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Pallad sticks his tongue out at him as he leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually think there's any way Kiriya's gaydar is that bad but I /do/ think he totally has the potential to be the awkward one sometimes and I really wanted to write it.

**Author's Note:**

> This may have a continuation? I just started school so I'm trying to focus more on that than fanfiction but this idea has been weighing on me for a while now so. If this does continue, the rating will go up. I didn't research snake mating habits for nothing.


End file.
